Economics for the jilted generation…

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plenty of money

Ultimately, the people chosen as central planners have a track record of enacting policies that enrich themselves more than everybody else. The people lining up at Davos calling for a new system, i.e. more government, are the same elite who have ruined the old one. As Jonathan Weill writes: “It’s becoming hard not to suspect that the annual gathering in Davos has become a conclave for global elites to promote crony capitalism and state-backed enterprise, ensuring that national coffers remain available to be tapped for private gain.”

Here’s a chart that illustrates the shape of that:

Plenty of money for bureaucracy, welfare, warfare and weapons contractors. But for basic science?

Not so much.

And that’s sad — because basic science seems to be one of the few arenas where government investment really does pay for itself.